57 Ideas For A Craft Business

Art is big business, and starting a mobile art gallery can put you on the road to riches. Take a traditional art gallery; place wheels on it and you have this business opportunity in a nutshell. Maybe it is not that simple, but pretty close. In this enterprise you will want to work with perhaps a hundred artists or more.

This is a volume-based operation. Once you have selected the artists, begin to establish locations where the artworks will be featured. Good locations include doctor office waiting rooms, office lobbies, restaurants, hospitals and all other high-traffic gathering places. The art can be displayed in these locations with a small card on each piece, which reads, ‘this art is for sale, for further information call (your business name and a toll-free 1-800 number).'

When a potential customer calls to inquire about a particular piece of art for sale, you simply sell the art over the phone and arrange delivery to the purchaser. If a piece sells for $100 then you would give the artist $50, the host location $10 and keep $40 for yourself. As you can see, on a volume basis there is enormous potential for profit. Imagine if you had 100 locations selling just two pieces of art per month at an average sale price of $$150 you would stand to make more than $10,000 every month.

Requirements: Operating a mobile art gallery business requires excellent cold calling, presentation, organisation and negotiation skills. You will also need reliable transportation and a computer system to track and maintain customer files and inventory lists.

Start-up costs: The investment to set this business enterprise in motion is minimal: $8,000 to $10,000 will be sufficient to purchase any required equipment and leave enough working capital to operate on for a few months while the business is being established.

Profit potential: Charging a flat commission of 40 percent for you, and generating gross sales of $250,000 per year will generate business revenues of $100,000. Once again, I stress that you must secure as many art installation locations or ‘silent salespeople' as you possibly can.

Native Art

Native peoples of the United States and Canada create some of the most beautiful art available, and these artworks are in high demand, especially in overseas markets such as Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

The demand for native art creates a great business opportunity for you, if you have a good contact base in foreign countries. This business allows you to work as a highly compensated broker by representing native artists locally and using your international contacts to set up distribution channels in foreign countries.

The business can also work in reverse. You can set up distribution channels in North America representing artists from foreign countries. The business does require a lot of research and set up time, but the potential rewards can justify the effort.

Nursery Designer

Parents are an indulgent lot, and at no other time are they more indulgent than when their children are newborns. I recently visited a designer who works from her home and exclusively designs nurseries for expecting parents. During this meeting, I gained great insight into this business and how to market your services.

First lesson is to throw away everything you know about marketing and promote your service solely on “goo goo ga ga” (as the designer puts it). What she means is that most of the decisions expecting parents make in terms of a baby nursery are made on an emotional basis. Her secret to business success is to promote her design talents using elaborate displays at any trade show that is remotely associated with babies and children.

This method of marketing enabled her to build a solid client and referral base, with very little (if any) competition at these trade shows. Of course, there are additional marketing options that are open, including working with architects, interior designers, retail children's stores and custom homebuilders. The profits that can be earned as a nursery designer are excellent. The above-mentioned nursery designer is netting in excess of $80,000 per year after expenses.

Online Art Auctions

Once again, millions of professional and amateur artists are seeking ways to sell their artwork and this fact creates a fantastic opportunity to start an online art auction service. The challenge with operating this type of venture will not be securing works of art to be auctioned, but promoting the site in such a manor that it receives a lot of visitor hits and interest.

In terms of marketing and promoting the site, consider building an alliance with a major player on the web like a brand name site. Revenues and profits will be created when artwork has been successfully auctioned and I would suggest retaining a commission in the range of 10 to 25 percent of the total selling value for providing the service.

Online Art Gallery

like an online art auction, an online art gallery also offers works of art for sale, but not in an auction format. This is the type of art marketing system that many well-established artists prefer to the auction format, as the value of their works cannot be diminished by lack of bids.

The site can be indexed into various art mediums, and artists wishing to be featured on the site pay a monthly fee or a commission upon the successful sale of the artwork. like many online ventures, the key to success often lays within promoting and marketing the site. No visitors, no chance to generate sales. Thus you will have to seek unique and innovative ways to build and maintain site traffic.

Online Art SuppliesRemote or small communities often do not have a store that stocks and sells art supplies, and these are the communities that you will want to target if your intentions are to establish a website that features art supplies for sale.

In addition to mainstream art supplies like paint, brushes and canvas, also consider selling more exotic or hard-to-find art suppose. The more varied the selection the better the chances of securing repeat visitors and customers to the site.

Furthermore, to keep inventory purchases to a minimum seek to build alpacas with manufacturers of art supplies who will ship directly to your customers. Promote the site in print publications, through art schools and classes, and Internet marketing and advertising options.

Online Coloring Books

Online coloring books for kids is a unique and interesting opportunity that could prove to be both fun and profitable. This Online business concept is very straightforward. Simply develop a website that enables kids to chose from a wide selection of images and pictures of animals, people, buildings and landscapes. These images are downloaded, printed from their desktop printer and coloured using crayons.

Alternately you could design a color pallet and tools that would enable kids to color their pictures right on the website and print it when they're finished. Kids could print multiple pages and even create their own coloring books to provide them with hours of fun.

To generate income to cover the cost for maintaining the site and providing you with a profit, you could license the rights to the website to other entrepreneurs to feature a link from their websites to yours. In other words this unique interactive tool for kids would be an item that would draw visitors to their site thus increasing hits and the opportunity to create larger revenues.

Online Craft Shows

Take craft shows high-tech by starting your own craft show website. The concept is straightforward. Many people producing crafts on a full- or part-time basis need a marketing and distribution outlet for their products beyond a few ‘bricks and mortar' craft shows each year.

Additionally, many of these same crafters can't afford to develop their own websites, and even if they could, there's still the cost of marketing and maintenance to consider.

Here is the solution: Develop a website that is a virtual craft show or e-crafts mall. The site can be indexed into various craft categories and visitors would simply choose the section they wished to visit. Crafters would receive a listing with a link to a page that would give details about their particular products as well as show photographs of their products.

Consumers wishing to purchase a product would simply click on their selection and be linked to the central e-crafts store to enter payment and shipping information.

Revenue would be earned by charging a listing fee to be featured on the site, as well as retaining a percentage of each sale for providing the e-craft store and service. Crafters would be notified electronically of each sale, including shipping details, so they could send consumers their purchases directly.

Online Fabric Shop

Option One: Develop a portal that brings fabric manufacturers and distributors together with fabric retailers via an Online fabric directory website. Worldwide there are thousands of fabric manufacturers and fabric retailers, thus an exciting opportunity exists by bringing these two parties together to buy and sell fabric.

Revenue could be earned by charging both fabric manufacturers and retailers a fee for using the directory service. You could even create a password application that would enable both to have their own Online warehouse, shipping center, inventory control, and tracking system.

This type of website would be beneficial to both parties as it would enable them to do business Online without the added expense of middlemen, sales consultants and costly marketing campaigns.

Option Two: Focus on the direct-to-consumer market by creating a website that features fabric for sale. Potential customers include hobby seamstresses, fashion designers, interior decorators and tailors. The site would be easy to create and could feature pictures and descriptions of the various fabrics you sell as well as a price pst. Customers would select the fabric they wanted, add it to their shopping cart, make a payment and submit the order, all with a few easy click of a mouse button.

Painter

Painting fine works of art definitely requires a great degree of talent, and if you posses this talent what a wonderful way to make a living. As an artist you can paint commissioned and noncommissioned pieces. Commissioned painting for corporations is a very good way to stabilize your income. There are also many art galleries who will accept and display your artwork for a commission on the sale of the artwork. Either way, there is nothing like being self-employed in a business or profession that you enjoy and that you can earn a living at.

Photo Mugs and Plates

Starting a part-time business that photographs people and pets and places their image onto plates, mugs, or plaques is a terrific small business opportunity that does not require a great deal of photographic experience or investment start-up capital to get rolling. Best of all, the business can easily create an income of $25 to $30 per hour.

This type of business is best suited to be operated from a small kiosk located in a busy area such as a mall on the weekends, flea markets, trade shows, and outdoor community events. The equipment needed to run the business is available to be purchased new or used and can be located in most business opportunity magazines, or by special order through photographic equipment supply businesses.

If you are considering starting this type of business be sure to market the service and products to businesses, clubs, and organisations as photo plaques make great achievement awards and corporate gifts.

Plaster Casts

Now a few of you reading this may be wondering how you can start a profitable business that creates and sells plaster casts. Probably many more of you are wondering why someone would purchase a plaster cast. Amazingly enough, there are businesses that not only survive producing plaster casts, but also earn very substantial profits for doing so.

Annually, millions of plaster casts depicting people, animals and objects are sold as home decorations. The materials needed to make plaster casts are inexpensive and readily available at most craft supply stores.

Many of these same stores also carry information, books and videos about how to make plaster casts and, in some cases, even conduct classes on the subject. The potential to earn an income or generate a profit from this unique business enterprise will obviously vary based on a number of factors.

However, providing you can tap into the right marketing and distribution mix, there'll be no reason why you can't only create an income, but also a profit.

Portrait Artist

Artistic talent does not need to be on your side for this new business enterprise. Person, pet or object, many people wish to have something immortalised on canvas for a myriad of reasons. The first step will be to establish a working relationship with a few professional portrait artists or art students seeking income opportunities.

Next, you will want to acquire some samples of their artwork and start to market your new business. Simply put, start asking around for businesses, professionals, pet shops, animal breeders, sports celebrities and anyone else who may be interested in a painted portrait of themselves or of a loved one.

The only requirement to get started is a good camera so that once you have secured a paying client you can take a picture of the subject for the artist to work from. Revenues for your business will be by way of a 30 to 40 percent commission of the total selling price of the completed artwork.

Portrait Photography

Calling all hobby photographers! Why not profit from your skills by starting a portrait photography service? As with pet photography, you can work at it full-time or part-time and operate the service on a mobile basis by going to your client's home, office, or business, or from a home based studio requiring clients to come to you.

Also, like pet photography, you can easily increase profits by simply offering to place images on a wide variety of products including greeting cards, calendars, mugs, and T-shirts. Photo greeting cards and calendars are especially popular. Promote the business by utilising print media such as fliers, newspaper ads, and Yellow Pages advertisements, as well as by working with local retailers who will allow you to set up a weekend portrait studio in their location on a revenue-splitting basis.

Potpourri Sales

Starting a business that makes and wholesales potpourri products is an excellent home based business venture to set in motion. The potpourri can be made from dried flowers, pine cones and bark mulch with fragrant essential oils added.

Once packaged, the potpourri can be sold on a wholesale basis to specialty retailers or directly to consumers via a sales kiosk or craft show. One important aspect of the business not to overlook is packaging. The packaging for the potpourri should be unique to your business, as a method to separate your product from the competition.

Additionally, be sure to use recycled materials for the packaging of the products, as this will not only help the environment, but it can also be used as a fantastic marketing tool.

[box]You can download a great resource called “The Hand crafters Companion”.This guide shows you how to make some great items from home including high quality spa products like luxury soaps, bath salts, butter, creams, lotions, fragrance, potpourri, aromatherapy blends etc. You can make these wonderful products for your own use and also to make a wonderful income from home. “The Hand-crafter's Companion” will show you just how.

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Pottery

Starting a business that designs, produces and sells pottery items is definitely best suited for the entrepreneur with a creative flair who is seeking a unique home based business opportunity. Some of the aspects of this business to be considered are:

• Ability. Anyone considering this business venture will definitely need the ability to not only create pottery items, but to create interesting and unique pottery items.

• Equipment and supplies. All equipment and supplies required for starting and operating a pottery making business are readily available in almost every community through craft supply stores that stock the items or order the items on an as-needed basis.

• Marketing. Pottery items can be sold by renting a table at craft shows, by selling the pottery to retailers on a wholesale basis, and by placing the pottery items in retail stores on a consignment basis.

• Business location. A pottery business is ideally suited to being operated from a home based studio location. Additionally, if zoning permits, the studio can also act as a retail outlet or factory direct sales outlet for the pottery products.

In addition to creating and selling pottery items, you can also generate additional revenue by holding instructional classes on pottery making and pottery glazing techniques.

Quilt Sales

Quilting has been around for generations and continues to thrive. like many things today, everything old is once again new and popular, and starting a business that sells custom-made, one-of-a-kind quilts could be your opportunity to reap big financial benefits.

If you are already familiar with quilting, great. If not, simply research the different aspects of quilting, or a visit to your library should give you enough information to get started. For those of you not familiar with copyright laws, be sure not to infringe on someone else's creation. selling the quilts could be as easy as renting a table at local craft shows or selling the custom quilts via the web to a global audience.

Additionally, look for opportunities in purchasing antique quilts and reselling the quilts for a profit, as the collectors' market for antique quilts is hot.

Rubber Stamps Business

In spite of the popularity of easy to make and print computerised labels, there will always be a market for rubber stamps that are used for business purposes, as well as in the hobby craft industry.

For one reason, in a business setup, using a rubber stamp may be quicker and more convenient than taking out a printout every time. The commonest places where a business uses a stamp in on receipts and letter heads.

As for hobby, there are both adults and children who collect and use rubber stamps. Although I’ve got to say, most of the adults now buy it mostly because of their children. Children can have a gala time with rubber stamps. They can stamp on paper and even each other. You get many safe and washable ink dyes that children can safely use.

I should also mention that any product that is popular with the children tends to do very well. All you have to do is work on a way to promote it to the right people and in the right way.

A wonderful advantage to starting a rubber stamp business is that the product is extremely portable. This means a lot of things. You do not require large spaces to display and store the product. You do not have to produce large and expensive packaging for it. And you can easily sell your product Online starting with eBay and ship it cheaply and with a great deal of ease.

Rubber stamps are also enduring products and not something that have an expiry date. This makes both storage and shipping easier.

Starting a business that manufactures predesigned rubber stamps is as easy as 1, 2 & 3. Research the industry, market, and business. Establish a manufacturing process, and secure retail accounts for the stamps. Manufacture the stamps and ship to retailers.

The key to success in manufacturing rubber stamps is to be unique and make the stamps interesting. In addition to the traditional business rubber stamps, also manufacture stamps for use in crafts and for personal use. Right now, animal stamps are very popular and feature just about every kind of animal.

Seashell Jewellery

Do you live near the ocean and take daily walks on the beach? If so, you could be walking past thousands of dollars in potential profits and not even realise it. Starting a home based business that designs and sells seashell jewellery is not only an easy and inexpensive business to set in motion, it also could prove to be very fun and interesting.

Collect various sizes, shapes and colours of seashells right from the beach, and create beautiful seashell jewellery. Once completed, the jewellery can be sold to local retailers on a wholesale basis or placed in retail stores on a consignment basis. A seashell jewellery manufacturing business is not only easy to start and run, but it could also generate extra income of $10,000 per year or more.

Silk-Screened Mouse Pads

Purchasing silk-screening equipment and a few hundred blank mouse pads is all that is necessary for starting your own business that produces mouse pads emblazoned with printed images, logos, and slogans.

The business can be operated from home and does not require a great deal of special skills or investment capital to establish. The silk-screened mouse pads can feature generic images and slogans and be sold to retailers on a wholesale basis. Or, the mouse pads can be sold to companies with corporate logos printed on them for use in their own business or to give or sell to their clients.

Blank mouse pads can be purchased in bulk for about $1 each, and the cost of ink to silk-screen an image will also be less than $1. Providing you can sell 1,000 mouse pads each week at a wholesale price of $3, the business could potentially generate profits in excess of $1,000 per week, prior to overhead and taxes.

Slate Tables

Slate and natural stone tables are becoming extremely popular, both as functional designer furnishings for residential homes and as bold furnishing statements for professional offices. This creates a tremendous opportunity for the entrepreneur with creative design abilities to capitalise by starting a business that designs, manufactures and markets slate and natural stone coffee tables, end tables, desks and boardroom tables.

The main requirements for starting and operating this highly specialised furniture manufacturing business includes an ability to work in stone, heavy duty equipment for manufacturing and transporting the finished products, clever marketing skills and an industrial location for manufacturing.

Stained Glass

Launching a business that focuses on teaching people how to make stained-glass items, such as lampshades and sun catchers, is a terrific low-investment business opportunity to initiate.

The business and instruction classes can be operated from a home based workshop, or the classes can be provided for students and operated in conjunction with a community institution, such as a college, recreation center, or community center.

One of the main requirements for starting a business teaching others how to make stained-glass products is, of course, the ability to make and teach others how to make stained-glass items. Beyond that, the business is very simple to start. selling students the materials required to make the stained-glass items, such as art glass, cutters, and glass grinders, can earn additional income.

Stencilling

Specialising in custom Stencilling is a fantastic low-investment business you can start and manage right from a home based office. In the past few years Stencilling has once again become a popular interior decorating art medium. The uses vary from decorative wall borders to creating beautiful patterns on cabinet doors.

To get started all you have to do is practice. There are many how-to books and videos available that will teach you specific secrets and methods about creative paint Stencilling. Basic materials that will be required include paint, paintbrushes, additional paint applicators, and predesigned Stencilling templates.

Of course if you have creative flair, you can design your own custom Stencilling templates. A paint Stencilling service is best marketed by way of referral or word-of-mouth advertising. It may take a little longer to establish a client base this way; however, the extra time will enable you to gain valuable Stencilling practice and experience for your new service.

Wall Murals

Many building and business owners are turning to having wall murals painted on large areas of their buildings (interior and exterior) for promotional and interior decoration purposes, and as a method to deter graffiti. If you have the ability, or can form a group of people with the ability to produce attractive wall murals, then you can make a lot of money operating your own custom wall mural painting service.

Paint your first wall mural for free (with permission of course) and use the finished product as your presentation. Approach businesses with photos of your work. Additionally, have a few suggestions and rough drafts of the wall mural you are proposing.

Another way to market your services is to partner up with local interior design or architecture firms–they'll know when the local Itapan restaurant is renovating or when the library is adding a new wing. Or, you can also target high-end homeowners who might want nursery rhyme images painted in their baby's room or a lush tropical scene added to a patio wall.

You could also add painting services, such as faux finishes, to boost your business. Next to your skill with a paintbrush, your imagination is your best tool for selling your service.

Art supplies Store

Millions of people enjoy creating art as a hobby. It is a great way to be creative and reduce stress. All of these people require art supplies to be able to enjoy their hobbies, and this fact creates a terrific opportunity for a startup art supplies retail store. The store does not have to be large, just well stocked with all the popular art supplies. You can also conduct painting and sculpting classes at night to earn extra income.

The investment required to start an art supply store will be in the range of $25,000. However, the profit potential is very good as art supplies are often marked up 100 percent or more. Furthermore, you may also want to occasionally take the business mobile and deliver art supplies to elderly homes and care facilities, as it can often be difficult for these people to get out and pick up supplies for their art projects.

Opening a craft store can be a lot of fun for a crafter. You get to be around all the materials and elements you love and like. You also get to try out and experiment with new materials and techniques all the time. And sometimes for free as various manufacturers give you samples of their products for you to stock.

If you are inclined towards the digital store, you can open an Online store and become successful at it. Craft supplies are in hide demand Online. You will have to focus efforts towards a good shipping and packing process. All in all, selling art supplies can be a very fruitful and satisfying business for anyone who loves crafting.

Christmas Decorations

Each year, billions of dollars are spent on Christmas decorations worldwide, and securing a portion of this very lucrative market is easy. This new business enterprise is very straightforward and can be initiated by anyone, as it doesn't require any special business experience or skills. Simply design, produce and sell custom one-of-a-kind Christmas decorations.

Go for the high end of the market where consumers are willing to pay $25 or more for one Christmas decoration that'll become a family heirloom. The decorations can be made from almost any type of raw material, in any popular Christmas theme.

The key to success is that the Christmas decorations must be unique and appealing. The decorations can be sold to specialty retailers on a wholesale basis or directly to consumers via renting a sales table at art and craft shows.

We believe that starting a craft business from home can be as simple as you want it to be. Christmas Decorations Business from home is a seasonal business. You can make a nice profit out of it every year by starting to prepare a few months in advance depending on how much you are getting in to the whole process.

As with any business it is advisable to work on building customer base, mailing pst and working on your marketing strategies so that your sales continue to grow every year and your customers are happy with the product and service that you provide them with.

Hobby artists rank in the millions, and starting a business that builds and sells art easels is a very easy and inexpensive enterprise to get rolling.

The business can be operated from a small home-based workshop, and the art easels can be sold to artist supply stores on a wholesale basis.

Furthermore, once the business has been established and all of the manufacturing bugs have been ironed out, approach various manufacturers of all-inclusive painting kits to check out the viability of including an art easel with these painting kits.

Providing this can be achieved, the business could become a large and profitable concern in a very short period of time.

This craft will require some very basic woodworking. But it is something that both men and women can do with ease.

With the advent of Online stores like eBay, the potential to sell the product that you make is extensive. You can learn more about selling Online when you download our craft business guide.

It is also a a good idea to get feedbacks from painters and artists who use easels if you are not an artist yourself. You will need an accurate idea of that the artists are looking for when they buy an easel as well as the different sizes and shapes that you might need to provide.

Craft Business Idea – Mosaic Tile Designing

Creating home decoration items featuring mosaic tile designs is an exceptional business venture to set in motion. Not only can this enterprise be started and run from a home based location, but this business is also very inexpensive to initiate. Best of all, interesting home and office decoration products are always in high demand. Create unique mosaic tile designs; everything from tabletops to mosaic tile picture frames.

Your only limitations will be your imagination. Mosaic tiles can be purchased ready to install or you can create your own simply by buying discontinued styles and colours as well as collecting broken tiles from local building and renovation companies. Of course, the latter options would be excellent choices, as most could be purchased at very low or no cost, not to mention the fact that you'll be recycling an unwanted waste product.

Marketing the mosaic tile creations can be by way of traditional advertising media, as well as by renting a weekend sales kiosk in a market or mall. Additionally, be sure to contact interior decorators in your community to introduce them to your unique product line.

Arts and Crafts Instruction

Knitting, painting, print-making, sculpture, stained glass, pottery, glass-blowing and woodworking are just a few examples of arts and crafts that people are willing to shell out their hard-earned money to learn.

If you have mastered any of these or other arts and crafts, why not be the person to train them and earn substantial profits for your efforts? Days, evenings or weekends, arts and crafts can be taught from a home-based studio, rented commercial space, in partnership with a crafts retailer whose space you use, in conjunction with a community center or school, or even at a park if weather permits.

Promote your classes through arts and crafts retailers, by running advertisements in the newspaper, networking at business and social functions, posting notices on community bulletin boards, and by exhibiting at arts and crafts shows.

Creative entrepreneurs may even choose to film and broadcast their training classes via the internet to a worldwide student base. The options are nearly limitless when you have a skill that other people are willing to pay to learn.

Rates will vary depending on how many people are in each class, material and equipment requirements, and the art or craft being taught. On average, independent arts and crafts instructors earn in the range of $25 to $50 per hour.

Basket Weaving

Starting a business that manufactures and sells custom-made baskets is an incredible enterprise to get rolling, simply because people from every walk of life are always searching for the perfect piece of functional home decoration.

Using a wide variety of raw materials, ranging from rattan to wire, will provide you with not only the material required to make the baskets but also results in a varied and interesting product line. If you don't know how to basket weave, don't worry; you can always take a few instructional classes or locate other basket weavers and sell their finished products.

Marketing the baskets can be accomplished by establishing accounts with retailers to stock and sell the baskets, as well as by hiring a direct sales force to host home parties that feature the complete basket product line for sale.

Belt Buckles

Are you searching for a truly unique home based business opportunity with a focus on manufacturing? If so, perhaps you should consider starting a business manufacturing specialty belt buckles. The business can be put into action on less than a $3,000 initial investment, and the long-term profit potential is sensational.

The key to success in this type of specialty manufacturing business is to ensure the buckle designs are original and to place a concentrated effort on utilising many marketing methods to ensure maximum exposure for the business and products. Additionally, consider utilising recyclable materials such as metals and glass for the raw material to construct the belt buckles as not only is this a way to reduce materials' costs, but more importantly, it can be used as a very powerful marketing tool.

To get started in a bronzing service you will need to invest a small amount of money into equipment and samples, but that's about it. Start by simply producing samples of your bronzing work and locate the sample items in every baby or child-related store in your community. Provide the retailers with order forms, bags, and name tags for the items to be bronzed.

The retailers' customers will simply drop off the items they want bronzed and pick up the items from the same retailer a week later. In exchange for the retailer providing this service for you, give them a 35 percent commission of the total sale. Of course, you will also need to provide the retailer with a sales price pst. There should be no problem in getting retailers onboard as they're not required to buy or warehouse any inventory for you.

Bronzing the baby shoes was very much in vogue some years back and is now regaining its popularity. It can be easy to create a niche in a market that is seeing resurgence after some time. You can take advantage of a new trend and promoting a business that is novel.

Calligraphy

Turn your talent for exquisite handwriting into a profitable business by providing customers with calligraphy services. Even people with minimal artistic ability can easily learn calligraphy. There are numerous books and kits available that can help you master the craft, as well as training classes offered through the resources listed below.

calligraphy can be used to create one-of-a-kind handwritten wedding and event invitations, restaurant menus, gift basket cards, high-end product labels, business cards, award certificates, greeting cards, thank-you cards, stationery and logo designs. likewise, print shops and stationers are often asked for special designs requiring calligraphy and because the majority only offer machine-printed calligraphy, there is a great opportunity to subcontract your services to them to fill this void in the marketplace.

Also be sure to create a portfolio of work that can be distributed to wedding consultants, restaurants, banquet facilities, associations and clubs throughout your community, as well as print and stationery shops. This is a low-cost business to get started, and rates are in the range of $25 to $50 per hour.

Caricatures

Big, easily recognisable heads and faces with small bodies is funny stuff, especially if the caricature is of a person we know and do business with. Hire a caricature artist who is prepared to work on a piece-work basis and start to market caricature drawings to local business owners. You will be amazed at the interest you will receive right out of the blocks.

Restaurants will purchase caricatures of their staff to adorn the front of menus, professionals will purchase a caricature of themselves to send to clients in the form of a thank-you card and retail businesses will purchase caricatures of valued regular customers to hang above the cash register. This is a great business enterprise to put into action as it only requires a little bit of creativity to ignite and about $1,000 to start.

Charcoal Portraits

Can you produce attractive charcoal portraits of people in a very short time frame? If not, you may want to take some courses so you can, as people portraits created from charcoal drawings is one of the greatest all time ‘cash' art business that can be started.

We have all seen street artists who produce quick charcoal portraits of people. These portraits usually cost $20 and the artist is paid in cash. I live close to a tourist area, and in the summer I have watched street artists draw as many as five portraits in an hour's time.

Your math skills do not have to be good to know that adds up to $100 an hour for about $2 or $3 worth of art supplies. Perhaps traveling to foreign destinations is your dream. If so, this is the perfect business opportunity for you. With little more than a passport, suitcase, and a few art supplies, you could easily work your way around the world producing charcoal portraits in every tourist mecca.

Christmas Ornaments

Starting a business that manufactures Christmas ornaments can provide you with a fabulous part-time seasonal income just when you need it the most, Christmas time. Christmas ornaments such as tree decorations and door wreaths are very simple and inexpensive to make, and can be sold in various ways including to retailers on a wholesale basis or directly to consumers at a sales kiosk in a mall or at craft shows. The business is ideally operated from home and the overheads are virtually nonexistent. While manufacturing and selling Christmas decorations on a part-time, seasonal basis may not make you rich; it can potentially generate an extra income of $5,000 to $10,000 per year.

Coloring Books

The main focus of this business enterprise is to personalise children's coloring books. The equipment requirements and approach to marketing are very similar to that of the story time book venture. However, an additional marketing technique that can be employed is to design a retail sales kiosk and locate the kiosk in a busy community mall on weekends.

This kind of retail location will enable you to personalise and sell the coloring books right on site. Remember, do not limit your ability to generate revenue. With specialised printing equipment you can also produce children's ‘u-color-it posters,' restaurant placemats, and even specialty greeting cards, all of which can also be sold via the sales kiosk to increase revenues and profits.

Costume Rentals

A costume rental business is a fun opportunity, and the additional yearly income it can generate is outstanding. Once the item has paid for itself with five or six rentals, the revenue generated by the rental item from that point on is almost all profit.

The best way to market a costume rental business is to create a marketing brochure describing the costumes in stock and distribute the marketing brochure and rental rate sheet to organisations within the community, such as sports organisations, community theatre groups, charity associations, and colleges and universities. Halloween will be a huge time of year for you, so be sure to ramp up your marketing efforts in September and October. Once established, this type of rental business will easily be supported by word-of-mouth advertising and repeat customers.

Craft Shows

Do you want to know how you can make an extra $25,000 per year by hosting only four annual craft shows? It is actually quite easy to host craft shows, and in the spirit of being unique, let me suggest a way that you cannot only make an additional $25,000 per year part-time, but you can also have a lot of fun doing it.

The business concept is very direct. Simply, secure 100 craft vendors per craft show that you host, and charge each vendor $100 for table rental. Holding a winter, spring, summer and fall show will generate total business revenues of $40,000 (4 shows x 100 vendors each show x $100 per table booth = $40,000). The next trick is to keep as much of the gross revenues as possible, and seek out ways of promoting the show so craft vendors will receive maximum exposure. Here is how it can be accomplished:

• Free location for the craft shows. Finding a location to hold the craft show without having to pay rent is very easy. Simply negotiate with the landlord of the location that shows' admittance fees and concession snack revenue will be retained by the location or landlord. One thousand people paying $1 each to attend and spending only $1 each on snacks will result in a two-day ‘same as rent' fee of $2,000.

• Free advertising for the craft shows. Advertising and promoting the craft show for free is also very easy. Start by negotiating with the craft vendors that 5 percent of their total sales will go to a community charity. The next step is to contact a local newspaper or TV station and negotiate a joint venture in terms of sponsoring the craft show and the local charity. Once again, it will not be hard to find a newspaper or TV station that is willing to give away some free advertising in exchange for the goodwill benefits of being a co-sponsor of a community event for charity.

Craft Supply Store

Starting a craft supply retail store is a fantastic new business enterprise to set in motion. This is the kind of retail business that will require a substantial initial startup investment, but the profit potential can easily justify the investment. Ideally, this type of business enterprise will be located in a highly visible and easily accessible location within the community. Furthermore, be sure to carry a wide variety of craft supplies.

The key to successful retailing is to build repeat clientele, and the best way to ensure this happens is to have the store well-stocked with products and supplies that represent all areas of the craft industry. Marketing this type of enterprise would be by way of traditional advertising media like newspapers, fliers and radio. An innovative approach to generate more income would be to hold instructional seminars after business hours on different crafting techniques such as painting or silk-flower arrangements. Locating wholesalers and distributors for products won't be difficult, and the profit potential is tremendous as product markups can be 100 percent or more.

Custom Buttons

Are you searching for a unique and inexpensive home based business opportunity that has little competition and a real chance of succeeding? If so, consider starting a business that specialises in manufacturing and selling custom, one-of-a-kind buttons for clothing.

The buttons can be manufactured from just about every type of raw material, including wood, metal, seashells and glass. The key to success in button manufacturing is twofold. First, the buttons must be unique in design and appearance. Second, you need to be a good marketer. Consider the following: • establish accounts with specialty retailers to purchase the buttons on a wholesale basis. • Sell the buttons to manufacturers and designers of custom clothing. • Sell the custom clothing buttons directly to consumers via the internet.

Designer Pillows

Turn your sewing machine into a part-time profit center by creating custom designed pillows. The pillows can be completed on a made-to-order basis, or you can develop standard designs and themes and sell the pillows on a wholesale basis. Be sure to establish alliances with interior decorators, as these decorators could become your best customers for custom pillows. Additional income can also be earned by designing and manufacturing custom pillow and cushion covers with elaborate themes. Stick with standard sizes or custom, made-to-order designs for this side of the business.

Dried Flowers

Growing, processing and selling dried flowers could put you on the path to self-employment, independence and financial freedom. One of the best aspects about setting this business in motion is the fact that it can easily be started right from your home, using your own garden as the initial source for the flowers to be dried and sold.

Once the business is ready to be expanded, there are a couple of options. The first is to lease vacant land to increase flower production, and the second option is to purchase flowers. While the second option is easier, it may reduce your profit margin. Once dried and packaged, the flowers can be sold to retailers on a wholesale basis. Profit potential range is $5,000 or more per year part-time.

Embroidery Service

Recent technology changes in the multi-billion dollar embroidery industry have made it very easy for even a novice to start an embroidery service. Embroidery machines are now available in single or multi-head units enabling the operator to embroider six items at a time or more.

Additionally, modern embroidery equipment is computer assisted, meaning that the designs can be created using specialty software and a computer and then automatically transferred to the embroidery machine to complete the stitching of the design. The business can easily be operated from a home-based location.

However, there should still be a small showroom established, even if it's in the home, to display items that can be embroidered as well as samples of embroidery options. Marketing the service can be as easy as creating a catalog and marketing brochure and distributing the package to potential clients such as sports associations, charities, corporations and clubs. Furthermore, consider hiring a commissioned salesperson to solicit or cold-call for business as this can be a very effective and profitable marketing option.

Freelance Photography

There are two very good reasons why the internet has breathed new life into the freelance photography industry. First, using e-mail, it is now very easy to send pictures to publishers, editors, copywriters, marketers and designers all around the globe in a matter of moments.

Second, billions of photographic images are needed to fill the now more than four billions (and climbing) web pages. In addition to the internet, there are millions of print publications, media companies, retailers, marketers, organisations, government agencies and others who need new photographs every day to add meaning to newspapers, newsletters, magazines, brochures, catalogs and presentations.

Needless to say, people with professional photographic skills have the opportunity to earn a great living taking and selling photographs. You can contract with publishers, or post your photos on any one of the many stock photography services Online, where people can browse the selection and purchase the images they need. You are paid a one-time fee, or a royalty each time the image is downloaded, depending on your agreement with the image broker.

Gift Basket

If you're the type who goes nuts at holidays and birthdays, choosing oh-so-special gifts and then dressing them up in creative packages, you'll get all wrapped up in a gift basket business. You can give gifts all year long and get paid for doing it! This is one of the hottest businesses going, with recent annual sales of $800 million.

If you set your creativity on high and develop your own special niche, you can be very successful. Gift basket entrepreneurs buy gifts and tuck them into baskets, decorative tins, boxes or bags for their customers to give to that certain someone. Each basket of goodies is designed around a theme, which can be anything from romance to travel to new baby to new home to just about anything you can dream up.

There are even divorce baskets! The gift basket business's advantages are that you can start part time, your startup costs are relatively low, and if you're a creative person who likes conjuring up unique themes and packaging and putting them all together, it's a whole lot of fun. Plus, the business is gratifying–everybody's delighted to receive a fancy basket full of gifts.

A gift basket can be elegant, whimsical or sporty, but make sure it looks smart–you can't just toss in a hodgepodge of objects and stick on a bow. You'll need a flair for the creative and the design ability to pull it all together into an attractive package. You'll also need to be a savvy marketer who can sell those unique baskets to a variety of clients and customers.

Hand-Painted Greeting Cards

There is large market demand for hand-painted greeting cards and post cards. If you have the ability to produce the finished product yourself, that's great. If not, there are many artists who will be glad to assist you, for a fee. The greeting and post cards can be wholesaled to retailers or sold directly to companies to give as corporate gifts to clients. If you plan to specialise in hand-painted post cards, you'll want to sell them in high-traffic tourist areas like airports, tourist attractions and beaches. Whichever you decide, this business can be both fun and profitable, and best of all, it can be started for peanuts.

Hand-Painted Pots

Gardening is one of the fastest growing pastimes in North America. For the entrepreneur seeking to capitalise on the huge demand for garden-related products, look no further than starting a business that creates and sells one-of-a-kind, hand-painted clay gardening pots.

More and more people are searching for unique and interesting ways in which to display their flowers and shrubs, so why not create extraordinary planting pots for these consumers and start making money.

Simply purchase clay planting pots from a local wholesale company and paint and decorate the pots with unique, interesting and colorful themes and designs. Once completed, the flowerpots can be sold in various ways, including directly to specialty retailers and garden centres on a wholesale basis and to residential and commercial interior decorators and garden planners. You can also sell them by renting a sales table at a local craft show or flea market, or by putting the on the internet.

Hand-Painted Storage Boxes

With so many people looking for unique and interesting ways to organise their personal belongings, home office documents and family keepsakes, hand-painted storage boxes are sure to fit the bill. The options are endless–using materials such as wood, metal and cardboard, you can create designer storage boxes to suit every decor.

You will need to have some artistic talent, but with that said, arts and crafts classes are available in almost every community. Additionally, consider building the storage boxes out of recycled materials, as well as using organic paints to decorate the storage boxes. Not only will you be helping the environment by doing this, but you'll also be able to capitalise on an earth-friendly marketing approach.

Ice Sculpture Classes

Who would possibly want to learn how to make ice sculptures? The answer is thousands of chefs and caterers. Providing you have the skills and abilities to produce ice sculptures and can teach other people, then you have overcome the first hurdle in establishing a new business venture that teaches students how to make ice sculptures.

Ice sculpture classes are best suited to being marketed directly to restaurant and catering company owners by arranging a presentation appointment to display and demonstrate your service. The business does not require an operating location, as you can travel to your client's business location and teach the ice sculpting classes on-site. This is an inexpensive business to establish and there should be no problems charging clients $40 to $50 per hour for the classes.

Iron Sculptures

Calling all talented artists with welding skills and a home workshop. It's time to start profiting from your talents by starting a business that produces iron art sculptures. The raw materials required for the sculptures can be purchased from metal recycling facilities for low or no cost.

Once completed, the sculptures can be marketed directly to art-loving consumers and art collectors by setting up a sales kiosk on weekends at malls and other community gathering places. Additionally, the iron sculptures can be featured and sold Online and at local art galleries. Furthermore, be sure to craft iron sculptures that have functional value such as weather vanes, coat racks and room partitions.

Jewellery Business

If you love the art of making jewellery, then you'll have a ball as a professional jewellery and accessories designer. Jewellery and accessories are always popular, especially today when all those '60s-style beads are back in style in a big way.

You can work with beads, with traditional elements like gold and silver, with glass, fabrics, feathers, clays–whatever suits your talents and fancies. And you can specialise in earrings, rings, pins or pendants, or in handcrafted handbags or hats. The advantages to this business are that you get to be creative as a career, you meet lots of interesting people while selling your art, and you can start part-time if you like.

You'll need the talent and skills to design and turn out jewellery or accessories others will want to be seen in. And in addition to all that artistic sensibility, you'll need plenty of marketing creativity and drive–you'll need to sell your products as well as make them.

Junkyard Sculptures

There are two ways to make money in a junkyard sculpture business. The first, create and sell art sculptures made from junkyard items. The second, supply art schools and artists with interesting junkyard items. In both instances a little bit of innovation can make you a lot of money.

When my wife and I were first married, like most newlyweds money was tight. Out of 50 percent inspiration and 50 percent desperation my wife decided to try and remedy the situation by creating a part-time income to supplement our family income. Her choice was to go to auto recycling yards and purchase old car springs for about 25 cents apiece. Once home she sanded and painted the springs lively colours and placed silk flower arrangements inside.

The recycled car springs became known as “Spring's Springs.” She sold “Spring's Springs” to gift shops, garden centres, and interior designers on a wholesale basis, and it didn't take long until it became a full-time and very profitable venture. There are a great deal of business opportunities available or that can be created. Sometimes, it just requires us to open our minds to imaginative ideas.

Knitting

Do you currently knit sweaters, jackets and more? If so, perhaps you should consider turning your hobby craft into a profitable part-time business enterprise. The business is to simply create beautiful and unique hand-knitted products, from sweaters to a clothing line for stuffed animals. The opportunities are endless; all you need is a creative spirit, knitting needles, some yarn and you're in business. For the truly enterprising entrepreneur, develop a website that features knit clothing products for sale, as well as a custom made-to-order service where site visitors could simply fill out an order form for the size and style of knit products they want.

Lamp Shades

Are you searching to start a part-time business that has virtually no competition? If the answer is yes, then consider starting a business that manufactures and markets custom-made lampshades. The key to success in this very unusual manufacturing business is to ensure you create really unique lampshades, not only in appearance and design but also in your choice of raw materials used in the construction.

Market the lampshades by contacting local interior decorators and setting appointments with them to introduce them to your unique product. Additionally, aim to sell the lampshades to retailers on a wholesale basis or place the lampshades into retail stores on a consignment basis.

Matting and Framing Shop

There is a lot of competition in the art framing and matting industry, and it can only mean one of two things. No one is making any money. Or, the second and more logical meaning, this is big business and there is plenty of work and profits to go around.

Framing stores are relatively inexpensive to start and operate , a lot of retail products and services get sold, there are gigantic markup percentages placed on the wholesale costs of art and picture framing goods. A large markup allows most retail operations the ability to survive and continue to offer valuable products and services to consumers.

Begin with researching your local market to determine if there is a demand for this service or room for an additional framing store. The business requires some special skills, in terms of making custom frames and cutting glass. However, both of these skills can be mastered in a short period of time, and you can generally find instruction classes offered on these subjects in your local community.

Mirror Art

Mirror art is simply small pieces of mirror in varying colours and shapes that have been assembled together to resemble a picture, landscape or even abstract design. In most cases a trip to your local glass shop will result in all the mirror you will need for this new venture, and usually at no cost. Why? Most glass shops dispose of mirror cutoff pieces that are too small to sell, but these same pieces of mirror are perfectly sized to create mirror art.

The equipment needed to create the art is inexpensive and includes a few hand tools and a glass grinder. Also, patterns are available to make the mirror art or you can create your own. Once completed, the art can be sold via flea market booths, online or by renting a sales kiosk in malls.